THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It's true! Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be a game changer for Kerala, with initial figures suggesting a jump in tax revenue following the state's migration to the new tax regime. SGST revenue, the tax levied by the state for intra-state supply of goods and services, for July, the first month after GST implementation, stands at Rs 800 crore when filing of returns ended on August 25.
This, when combined with IGST, the state's share for interstate supply of goods and services, would touch Rs 1,500 crore, according to taxmen's estimates. Monthly VAT revenue during the past fiscal typically ranged between Rs 1,200 crore and Rs 1,300 crore.
While Kerala expects to receive exact IGST figures from the Centre in two weeks' time, the State GST department has almost ruled out the possibility of getting assistance under the compensation scheme.
As per the GST (Compensation to States) Act, Centre will compensate the states which do not record 14 per cent revenue growth. Current estimate suggests Kerala's revenue growth in July would be about 20 per cent. Meanwhilea, the GST registration for traders touched 99.5 per cent in the state, which had about 2.5 lakh registered traders in the previous tax system. Of them, GST registration is not mandatory for 40,000 traders with less than Rs 20 lakh annual turnover. According to the department, only 4,000 traders in the compulsory category remain unregistered in the new system. Also, about 15,000 new registrations were recorded in July.